In order to ensure good operating conditions, wind energy installations are frequently installed in exposed positions, where the wind is stronger, but where the environmental conditions are also worse. This also includes coastal areas or mountainous or hilly areas beyond the temperate latitude zones, in particular in subarctic or arctic regions. Because of this choice of location and because of the fact that many components of the wind energy installation are arranged at high altitude, this therefore results in the problem of protection against low temperatures. This is particularly applicable to the sensitive electronics which are used in control devices.
It is generally known for wind energy installations for installation at extreme climatic locations to be provided with a climate-control device for the pod and for the components arranged therein. A climate-control device such as this, which may include both heating and cooling, uses an extremely large amount of energy, however, and therefore considerably reduces the efficiency of the wind energy installation. This is true even if the cooling is dispensed with, and only heating devices are provided instead. Although this is adequate for installation in relatively cool climatic environments, a considerable amount of energy is still required for heating, thus correspondingly reducing the efficiency.
In order to overcome this, it has therefore been proposed that a switchgear cabinet with a dehumidification installation be provided in order to accommodate the electronics of the control device. This is designed to reduce the humidity in the switchgear cabinet to such an extent that condensation cannot form, even in relatively cool temperatures. This protects the electronics against the negative consequences of moisture precipitation without having to heat the entire switchgear cabinet to relatively high temperature values to do so, as is traditionally necessary in the case of a pure heating device. This reduces the energy consumption.
One disadvantage of the known methods and apparatuses is their behavior when the network fails. Since the heating device and the dehumidifying device are fed with network power, they fail when the network fails; they are switched on again in a corresponding manner when the network returns. One problem in this case is that if the external temperatures during the network failure are relatively low, the wind energy installations and their components may have cooled down to such an extent that defects may occur if the wind energy installation and its heating devices are simply switched on again, to be precise defects in particular in the sensitive control electronics.